Gratitude can
transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and
change ordinary opportunities into blessings. (William
Arthur Ward)

Happy Thanksgiving!

May God continue to bless you with good
health, peace and joy!

First of all, I
want to thank you very much for all your support, love, gifts and especially
your prayers as we celebrate Thanksgiving Day. How is your Thanksgiving celebration? Our community was invited to celebrate Thanksgiving at Maryknoll Society House Hong Kong this evening. It's a very nice celebration.

It’s my farewell time at Holy Family Church these days as I will leave for USA on December 7, 2015 so I want to share the farewell story.

On
my way to Shenzhen last Sunday morning, Ms. Liang asked me to arrive at the
Church before Mass as she needs help. Our
community organized an open day last Saturday afternoon as part of the Year of
Consecrated Life celebration so I went to Shenzhen last Sunday instead of Saturday. Not so
long, Mrs. Liu also asked me to arrive as soon as possible because they are
waiting for me. I could guess that there would be a surprise for me. I arrived just before “Our Father” and immediately
Mrs. Liu asked me to sit with Ms. Liang in the front section. After announcing the couple’s
gathering on Nov 28, Fr. Lu asked me to sit on the first pew because Ms. Luo, Mr. Wu and
Ms. Xiong (who was intentionally removed her choir
uniform and wore pink blouse) would share their appreciation on my voluntary works while showing the
compilation of my pictures with parishioners.
Ms. Xiong then led the choir to sing “不简单的路”（=not a simple road） and gave her gifts. Mr. Li, the leader of parish
council, expressed his appreciation including on the presentation about “How to build together the Holy Family Church" and asked me to come back next year. Fr. Lu also expressed his appreciation and asked me to come back besides sharing how I love
the parishioners. Fr. Lu asked me to
speak so I said that I am grateful for what God prepares for me at Holy Family
Church: the parishioners are generous, care and understand my limitation on
Putonghua. I couldn’t hold my tears. Two children presented a card from the Sunday’s
School Team, Mr. and Mrs. Fan with their daughter presented a pink rose bouquet
and then Mr. Li gave a Holy Family Statue.

Several parishioners expressed their
gratitude after Mass and wish I will come back. After praying with a non-Catholic guy, whom we
visited at the hospital two weeks ago, I went to the back of the Church as the children
and parishioners were waiting for the gathering. Mrs. Cai provided a pink cake for the gathering. Ms. Huang
asked me to make a wish while Fr. Lu invited all of them to sing “祝你平安”（=Peace be with you）. It’s really a big surprise,
which was organized by several youth.

After
the celebration, we had a meeting for youth gathering. I expressed my gratitude for their help,
informed the summary of survey and gave some guidance in planning for the 2016
gatherings. Then, I divided them in
small groups and asked each group to write a youth gathering plan and they
are ready with 6 plans! They always did
more than I thought for surprise requests of e.g. pick up the cigarette butt on
the street in doing charity work and gave away the bookmark on the street in
doing evangelisation work.

Then, Fr. Lu, several parishioners and I
attended Mass at the Christ the King Church of Bao An District for the feast of
Christ the King followed by dinner, rosary prayer and Mass at Holy Family
Church.

Mrs. Wu and her husband invited me for
hot pot dinner after evening Mass as she missed the dinner with her circle and
me on Nov 9. The Sunday’s School
Teachers invited for lunch last Sunday. Here
is the link of the pictures: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EbuWrFm4ZM2aj

Ok...that's it for now.Once again, Thank you very much! Terima kasih banyak! 多谢你！

Hong Kong, November 26, 2015

with love and prayer,

Sr. Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.

Let’s do simple things with simple love to make God’s
love visible

Dec 4, 2015:

Fr. Lu and 8 parishioners accompanied me to go back to
our convent on Dec 1, 2015. Fr. Gabriel,
MG was our host at St. Theresa’s Church. One of
the youth Ms. Xu visited our convent in the evening as she is working in Hong
Kong.

Almost 20 volunteers attended
the second volunteer training of Holy Family Church on November 8 after Sunday Morning
Mass. Fr. Lu taught the song “请你告诉我该如何爱你“（Qing Ni Gao Su Wo Gai Ru He Ai Ni=Please tell me how
should I love You）. Fr. Lu gave
the welcome note and led the opening prayer by sing “请你告诉我该如何爱你”

I
started the training by showing part of the first training survey result and
then gave presentation on “How to build together Holy Family Church?”I
edited part of presentation on “How to build a Parish together with
Parishioners” and “The Duty of a Catholics” by Ms. Yang Yu Lian for a Parish Management workshop in Maryknoll Stanley House Hong Kong. As usual, I asked the participants to read part
of the presentation.

After
lunch, we watched the washing of the feet ceremony by Pope Francis while
listening to John 13: 1-15 and then washed the next person’s feet and also pray
for her/him followed by a quiet reflection. There was small group sharing and report to
the whole group.

Fr. Lu gave the summary and gave a blessing. Two of
them brought forward the drawing of small group sharing as one of the offering at
the anticipated Sunday Mass. Several
volunteers were volunteering for the Mass while the rest went home.

Three
participants will give presentation on “How to build together Holy Family
Church” in three different Masses on the following week end.

Four
sisters and I left for Jeju Island on Oct 7, 2015 to attend our bi-annuallyMaryknoll Sisters Asia
East World Section Meeting.

There were presentations about “FAO and One Earth
Community” by Sr. Teresa Dagdag, MM, “Korean Shamanism” by Dr. Hae Kyoung Koh,
Ph.D including one day field trip to Shaman sites on Jeju island, “Vocation” by
Sr. Lourdes Fernandez, MM, sharing from Congregational Leadership Team by Srs.
Teruko Ito and Anastasia Lott besides open space technology and updates on regions.

The evening activities were DVD “Symphony of the Soil”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5QYZ-LRXW4),
simplicity night to celebrate our foundress Mother Mary Joseph’s death
anniversary, and sharing the field trip experience.

Maryknoll Affiliates Korea not only joined part our
activities but also helped the preparation and during the meeting, especially
Ms. Monica.

All the younger sisters went for outing to Sunrise Peak
and Yongduam Rock besides a meeting about our gathering and collaboration
especially in vocation ministry.

It’s a
fruitful meeting as it gives me better understanding about our Maryknoll matters,
Shamanism and Food Problem besides the opportunity to exchange stories with the
rest of the group. Thank you very
much!